Shambles At Versailles
- Brand
- Year
- 2012
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Puzzle
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Google France
- With
- 84.Paris
Objective
Google's Cultural Institute built the game to make its Versailles 3D heritage work — the 3D reconstructions and Google Earth models produced with the Château de Versailles — something a general and school audience would actually spend time with. Releasing it on 14 June 2012, the same day the palace opened its new History Gallery, gave that milestone an online educational companion aimed squarely at children and families, not at selling anything.
Solution
On versailles3d.com, the player first picks a language — French, English, Spanish or Japanese — then watches an opening cutscene set at the court of Louis XIV. From there, courtiers step forward one by one to hand out assignments: Hardouin-Mansart, Le Vau, Le Nôtre, Lully, Colbert, La Palatine and the king himself each set up a mini-game, sending the player through nine tasks that cover roughly forty years of building work — raising the palace's facades, piping water to the fountains, laying out the formal French garden, stocking the Royal Menagerie, and decorating the state rooms. Between tasks, the player can flip open a Moleskine-style notebook to jot notes and read more about the history behind what they just built. The session ends with the player lighting a fireworks display over the finished palace. Alongside the games, the site offers printable papertoy sheets, letting the player print, cut out and assemble a paper model of Versailles at different stages of its construction.
- 1
The game opens with a cutscene introducing the court of Louis XIV; once it ends, players can set the interface language (French, English, Spanish, or Japanese) from a control in the corner. Cast as an assistant to Versailles's builders and decorators, the player is addressed directly by court figures — including Hardouin-Mansart, Le Vau, Le Nôtre, Lully, Colbert, La Palatine, and the King — who ask for help building the château.
- 2
The task is framed as constructing Europe's most beautiful château over roughly forty years, structured as nine interactive challenges spanning the construction site, the gardens, the Menagerie, and the decoration of the state rooms.
- 3
Two challenges cover the physical building work: one has the player raise the château's facades, the other has them reconstruct the hydraulic system that supplies water to the gardens' fountains.
- 4
Two garden-focused challenges follow: one has the player lay out a French-style formal garden by planting and arranging its parterres, the other has them guide the King out of the palace's celebrated maze.
- 5
In the Menagerie challenge, the player stocks the royal menagerie with exotic animals brought from Asia and Africa, while Colbert comments wryly on the fashion for such imports.
- 6
A further challenge has the player decorate the palace's reception rooms.
- 7
The sequence closes with a fireworks display over the palace that the player triggers and controls.
- 8
Throughout, the player keeps a Moleskine-style notebook on the side that collects notes and offers additional historical background.
- 9
Outside the game screens, players can print sheets depicting the palace at different construction stages, then cut and assemble them into a physical three-dimensional model.
